Research news

By Cynthia Lee, McGill Newsroom
Life in the city changes cognition, behavior and physiology of birds to their advantage
Birds living in urban environments are smarter than birds from rural environments.
But, why do city birds have the edge over their country friends? They adapted to their urban environments enabling them to exploit new resources more favorably than their rural counterparts, say a team of all-McGill University researchers.

By Chris Chipello, McGill Newsroom
Study reveals how wind patterns change along with sea-surface temperatures
Shifting winds may explain why long-term fluctuations in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures have no apparent influence on Europe’s wintertime temperatures. The findings, published in Nature Communications, could also have implications for how Europe’s climate will evolve amid global warming.

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By Chris Chipello, McGill Newsroom
Astronomers for the first time detect repeat ‘fast radio bursts’ from same sky location
Astronomers for the first time have detected repeating short bursts of radio waves from an enigmatic source that is likely located well beyond the edge of our Milky Way galaxy. The findings indicate that these “fast radio bursts” come from an extremely powerful object which occasionally produces multiple bursts in under a minute.

By Chris Chipello, McGill Newsroom
Surprisingly complex interactions between neurotransmitter receptors and other key proteins help explain the brain’s ability to process information with lightning speed, according to a new study.

By Tod Hoffman, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research
The use of incretin-based drugs is not associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a study published in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
The research was conducted by the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES), which used the health records of almost 1 million patients with types 2 diabetes.

By Julie Robert, McGill University Health Centre
A research team, led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Montreal, has broken new ground in our understanding of the complex functioning of the brain.

By Chris Chipello, McGill Newsroom
McGill researchers Elena Bennett and Yasser Gidi also honoured by NSERC
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has named McGill University astrophysicist Vicky Kaspi as this year’s recipient of the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, NSERC’s highest honour, in recognition of the excellence and influence of her research contributions.